For troops in Kandahar, comfort is an Outback meal delivered on a C-17. But for those traveling to prepare the meal, it's a nerve-wracking mission.

The rumor started about a month ago. It spread through the 101st Airborne Division in Afghanistan like a dust storm in Kandahar. Nobody really believed it, because it sounded too good to be true.

The Outback Steakhouse people were coming. And they were bringing food . . .

Origins: Thus began an article that ran in the 2 July 2002 issue of the St. Petersburg Times and which has subsequently come to land in many an

inbox.

On 19 June 2002, fifteen Outback Steakhouse (an international chain of Australian-themed restaurants) employees worked with military personnel in Kandahar, Afghanistan, to cook and serve ribeyes and bloomin' onions to members of the 101st Airborne Division stationed in that desolate region. Temperatures hit 117°F that day, and the fifteen civilians wore water-filled backpacks called "camelbaks" to keep themselves hydrated. It took those fifteen Outbackers three days to reach Kandahar from the United States (travel into war zones is a tricky affair), but once they arrived the U.S. troops were served the best meal they'd had in a long time.